


Like Safety and Home

by DetectiveJoan



Series: The Balance of Joy [1]
Category: The Bright Sessions (Podcast)
Genre: Characters Who Deserve Good Things, F/F, F/M, Femslash February 2018, Friends to Lovers, Multi, Polyamory, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-12 21:21:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13555824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DetectiveJoan/pseuds/DetectiveJoan
Summary: “We should ask Chloe out,” Mark says one day with no apparent provocation.





	Like Safety and Home

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "She Keeps Me Warm" by Mary Lambert.
> 
> I wrote like 90% of this on my phone with an autocorrect that hates me, so please lmk if there's any glaring errors.

“We should ask Chloe out,” Mark says one day with no apparent provocation.

Sam nearly drops her phone. “What?”

“Hey, no, don’t look at me like that,” he says. “Listen, I heard you thinking about it last time she was over for dinner — which, by the way, is something the three of us do kind of a lot, and is basically already a date."

Sam crosses her arms tightly over her chest. “I was thinking that I probably _would have_ asked her out if I'd never met you."

Mark shrugs. “Yeah, but I like Chloe too. And she likes both of us — I heard her think it. Just because you and I are together doesn't mean we can't be with her. We should ask her out.”

Sam's heart does something confusing. "Wait, she likes me? Are you sure?"

Mark grins.

They don't get the chance to ask Chloe, technically. Mark calls her and they make plans to go out for dinner. When he and Sam pick her up she takes one look at them and frowns deeply.

"Jeez, Sam, you are so nervous right now, it's kind of overwhelming. Why are you...?" 

Sam shoots Mark a glance, but his eyes are on Chloe. He's grinning again, in the soft way that he usually does right before he kisses Sam.

"Oh," Chloe says slowly. "Because you're planning on...oh! Yeah, totally. Of course. I mean, wow. I can't believe you thought I'd say no."

By some miracle, it's that easy. And adding Chloe to their relationship makes everything else easier, too.

Sam still feels a compulsion to bite at her fingernails when she thinks about everything she doesn’t know about what Mark’s been through, but Chloe approaches him with an unimaginable sense of calm and acceptance. She and Mark sometimes sit together on Sam’s bed, or her living room floor, or her front porch, and they share thoughts. Stumbling across them conversing completely silently is always a little bit creepy, but it seems to help Mark feel more settled and present, so it’s not like Sam’s going to complain.

“What do you guys talk about when you do that?” she asks Chloe once.

“We don’t talk, Sam. That’s literally the whole point. We just get to think without having to put our thoughts into words. It’s really nice, actually.” Chloe pauses. “Except sometimes the only thing he can think about is how much he loves you, and it’s almost _too_ sweet and sincere, y’know?"

"Oh ha ha," Sam says.

Chloe pokes her between her ribs until she laughs for real.

Chloe’s comfortable with physicality in a way that always surprises Sam. Sam can barely remember that voluntarily touching her partners is an option, but Chloe reaches out to grab Mark’s hand or wrap an arm around Sam’s shoulder seemingly without thinking about it. When she leaves for class in the morning, she gives them each a kiss on the cheek and a cheery wave. When she comes home after a long studio session, she curls up in Sam’s lap on the couch and dozes to the sounds of _Jeopardy!_ and Mark cooking dinner in the next room.

At night Chloe sleeps with her head on Sam’s chest and her arms wrapped around Sam like a vice. Mark keeps a bit more distance in bed — he’s prone to panic attacks if he falls asleep with that kind of weight holding him down — but he lets Chloe toy with his hair and trace lines between the freckles on his shoulders until one of them falls asleep.

When Sam jolts awake impossibly early, Chloe stirs too. As Sam starts trying to figure out how to extricate herself, Chloe’s grip on her tightens. Chloe gropes around until she finds Sam’s hand, and then laces their fingers together tightly.

“Stay here,” she says, voice barely more than a mumble, and Sam does.

**Author's Note:**

> (And none for Damien, bye.)


End file.
